Change SQL Collation without reinstalling SQL

I ran into an issue where SQL Server was installed with
the wrong collation and a lot of user databases were already attached. I could
easily backup the databases, uninstall, reinstall, and restore the databases
back, but this could take literally all day. There is a better and much faster
way to make this change. This post will go over it….

First, backup all databases (duh)

Next, we’ll verify the current collation. On this server it’s set to Latin1_General_CI_AS and I want to change it to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Next, we’ll double check and make sure we have backups
of all databases 😊

Open SQL Configuration Manager and turn off all SQL Services:

Open Command Prompt (as administrator) and browse to the
BINN directory and type the following command.